6. What is an "equation"? Solve two of the following equations

You are not permitted to answer more than one question in each Section.

1. Name the different kinds of fuel used in Great Britain, and the price of each, with the quantity usually bought at one time by a working man.

2. What is the object of using either coke or charcoal in domestic work; with what danger is it attended ?

3 Do you prefer open grates or stoves in a School? Give your reasons, and name some of the best and most economical stoves.

SECTION III.

1. Arrange the four common kinds of meat, in order, as most digestible, and state their present price in your neighbourhood, with any reasons you can give for it.

2. Name the so-called "best joints" of the different kinds of meat. What parts of the animals are they?

3. Name the cheaper pieces" of different meats, and the most economical way of dressing them, with or without vegetables.

4. What dishes would you give for a "good dinner" to a dozen working men? State the quantity required for each dish, the vegetables and condiments requisite, and the probable cost of the entertainment, including a pint of beer per head.

SECTION IV.

1. Give the prices of as many as you can of the following articles in your neighbourhoodBread, quartern loaf-Flour (seconds) per stone-Eggs, per dozen-Fresh Butter, per lb.Salt, per lb.-Potatoes, per peck-Moist Sugar, per lb.-Black Tea, per lb.-Green Tea, per lb. -Coffee, per lb.-Red Herrings, each-Bacon, per lb.--Vinegar, per half-pint-Rice, per 1b.-Mould Candles, per lb.-Dips, per lb.-Good Calico, per yard-Good Flannel, per yard. 2. What quantity of material is required for the following P-Man's shirt, calico-Woman's shift, calico-Woman's petticoat, flannel-Man's stockings (knitted) worsted-Child's frock (6 years old) print-Boy's trousers (12 years old) tweed.-1 dozen towels, huckaback-Pair of sheets, large bed, linen-Young woman's dress, merino-Young woman's jacket, cloth.

1. What advice would you give to girls "going out to place" about (1) health; (2) dress; (3) general conduct ?

2. State how you would endeavour to maintain a healthy discipline in your school.

3. Explain exactly what are " hemming,"" stitching," "felling," " seaming," "gathering," "herring bouing"; what a gusset" is why used-and the difference between linen and calico in origin, price, and usefulness.

Papers for the Schoolmaster.

No. XXVIII.-NEW SERIES.

APRIL 1ST, 1867.

MR. CORRY'S MINUTE.

If

The New Minute of the Committee of Council on Education is at least as officially obscure as any of the previous codes and minutes which have emanated from Downing Street. Teachers are not usually unintelligent, and sundry unexpected forfeitures under article so-and-so R.C., have in many instances stimulated them to such a careful study of that document as ought to have made them as expert in getting at the pith of an educational minute as a conveyancing barrister at that of a deed, or an attorney at that of an Act of Parliament. But we question whether with all this preparation any teachers can be found who discovered the meaning of the minute of the 20th February at the first reading. such an one there be, we envy him. Our sympathies, however, go rather with those who are in the position of an old and esteemed friend- -a veteran teacher-with whom we were lately conversing, who confessed that after reading it carefully over thrice he felt so puzzled and bemuddled by the constant references to "paragraphs," and "financial years," and "year's residence," and " exemptions from articles," that he gave up, and confessed their Lordships had fairly floored him. Indeed, in their anxiety to follow closely the principles of the Revised Code, and dovetail together the systems under which grants are paid to Elementary Schools and to Training Colleges, "my Lords" would seem to have perplexed even themselves; for, as we shall show hereafter, their arrangement will, after a most curious fashion, leave numbers of schools in a position to earn the additional grant offered without doing anything to increase "the present ratio of teachers to scholars," while others can only do so by expending more than they can earn in fulfilling the condition upon which it is granted. But of this as we proceed. Let us first give a brief outline of the minute, so as to bring out clearly what it offers, and under what conditions it may be obtained.

Premising that both grants and conditions are supplementary to those of the Revised Code (as printed for 1867), we may say that this minute offers to the managers of schools:

(1) An additional grant of Is. 4d. per child for every pass in reading, writing, or arithmetic, up to a sum of £8 per school (department).

(2) The old grant of 8s. for one year for a child who has already passed Standard VI. if he passes in a further subject as required below.

(3) £10 for every male pupil-teacher who gains a first class, and £5 for every one who obtains a second class scholarship; and

(4) £8 and £5 respectively for every such pupil-teacher who, having resided one year in a Training College, is placed, at the end of it, in the 1st or 2nd division.

To obtain these grants:

(a). The school must have one assistant or certified teacher for every 80, or one pupil teacher for every 40 scholars in average attendance after the first 25 (instead of after the first 50).

For grants 1 and 2 it is also necessary to

(6) Provide for teaching regularly one subject of secular instruction beyond those required in the standard examinations, and further To obtain grant 1 :

(o) Pass a number of scholars equal to one-fifth of the average number of scholars above six years old in attendance in that subject.

(d) Have one-fifth of the whole number of the (Standard) passes in Standards IV. VI., and

(e) Have a total number of passes equal to 200 per cent. of (i.e. double) the number of scholars above six years of age in average

attendance.

Such, stripped of official verbiage, is the New Minute, which Mr. Lowe wishes the House of Commons to dissent from, at least so far as it "provides for an increase of the grants now made to primary schools ;" a miserable appeal for cheese-paring economy which it is to be hoped the House will not endorse. If the minute would secure the improvements it is intended to bring about, surely no one would begrudge the very small extra cost to be paid for them. To increase the number of pupilteachers and to induce more of them to enter the Training Colleges, are all but universally admitted to be desiderata. Some teachers, indeed, misled by a false, because partial, application of the principles of political economy, may imagine that their interests are best served by diminishing the supply; but all thoughtful educationists, looking

at all sides of the question, must admit that to "raise the price of duly qualified teachers, so as to put them beyond the reach of those schools whose income is necessarily limited, would be an unmixed evil and a fatal error. We should welcome, therefore, any regulation which tended to increase the present inadequate supply of candidates for admission to Training Colleges. And this we conceive to be the main design of the minute we are considering. The additional grants were intended, we presume, to encourage the employment of more pupil-teachers, and to lead those who select and watch over them during their apprenticeship to exert themselves more earnestly in making that apprenticeship a prelude to the further training of a Normal College; while, as a secondary, though scarcely less important design, the increased teaching power should be taken advantage of to infuse something more of variety and intelligence into the instruction given in the schools than had been attained under the operation of Mr. Lowe's code. But, as we have before hinted, the regulations adopted fail, in many cases, to secure any increase in the staff of teachers as a condition of obtaining the additional grant; while in the majority of the others they make its receipt a burden instead of a help, as it can only be obtained by incurring an additional expenditure greater than the amount offered. We proceed to prove this by the unanswerable logic of figures, taking only the case of pupilteachers, both because the employment of additional assistants would not supply the want we have spoken of, and because their cost would obviously far exceed any amount to be earned under this minute. Take, then, the following table:

From this it appears that in all schools where the average annual attendance lies between 0 and 65, 90 and 105, 130 and 145, 170 and 185, &c., the new grants will be payable without any increase of the number of pupil-teachers above that required to avoid a forfeiture under previous regulations. These schools, therefore, may gain all that is offered, without doing anything to further the main object for which it is given.

Schools with average attendances between those quoted, can only obtain the increased grant by employing an extra pupil-teacher. Will it pay them to do so? In girls' schools, certainly not; because all they can thereby earn (except the grants for the few who have previously passed Standard VI., a sum so small, generally speaking, that we may leave it out of the reckoning here and elsewhere) is £8, which will not really pay her salary. In boys' schools there are the additional grants contingent on their scholarships and first year's examination; and as these apply, not only to the extra pupil-teacher, but to all employed in the school, the possible earnings vary with their number. We will assume that, in every case, a pupil-teacher costs on an average £15 a-year; i.e. £75 during his apprenticeship; also that in every case the full grant (£8) is earned, and that all the pupil-teachers gain scholarships, and pass at the end of their year of training, half in the first, and half in the second class. Now, with these assumptions, how will our managers' accounts stand when they have received all the grants payable on account of the engagement of their extra pupil-teacher?

The school, with an average of between 105 and 130 has, of course, two to bring in scholarships and examination grants; they therefore may get £68 towards their expenditure of £75; with three pupil-teachers they may get £82, and with four, £96, so that in these large schools (but they are exceptional ones) there might be a chance of gain by accepting the extra grant; though, of course, the failure or withdrawal of a pupilteacher, at any stage, would turn the possible gain into an actual loss.

We fear, therefore, it is vain to look for any considerable increase in the number of pupil-teachers from the operation of this minute. If their Lordships wish to produce this very desirable effect, they should adopt the simpler requirement of one pupil-teacher in each school more than the number required to avoid a forfeiture under Art. 52 b., and offer an additional grant which, under all circumstances in which their conditions were fully complied with, would at least fully cover the extra payments these conditions rendered inevitable. For such extra teaching power, coupled with the additional teaching demanded by the present minute, we are persuaded Parliament would not, even when urged to refuse them by Mr. Lowe, begrudge the "increased grants" necessary to produce such important "results"